The Real South

Southern Narrative in the Age of Cultural Reproduction

In this stimulating study, Scott Romine explores the impact of globalization on contemporary southern culture and the South's persistence in an age of media and what he terms "cultural reproduction." Rather than being compromised, Romine asserts, southern cultures are both complicated and reconfigured as they increasingly detach from tradition in its conventional sense. In considering Souths that might appear fake--the Souths of the theme restaurant, commercial television, and popular regional magazines, for example--Romine contends that authenticity and reality emerge as central conce.